The Commission has made a draft rules determination, including more preferable draft rules, that would allow the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to share confidential information directly with third parties that registered participants (RPs) have engaged to operate on their behalf and are already permitted to share information with.

On 15 May 2025, AEMO submitted a rule change request that seeks to enable it to share confidential information directly with authorised third parties who can already receive this information from market participants. This would be done by creating unique system logins for those third parties.  

On 9 October 2025, we initiated consultation on AEMO’s request. We received two submissions, from Ausgrid and Energy Transition Specialist International (ETSI) Energy, both supporting the proposed rule change.

On 18 December 2025, we extended the publication of the draft determination to 5 February 2026 as the rule change request raises issues of sufficient complexity or difficulty.  

Draft determination

The direction of broader reform and the scope of the rule change shaped our draft determination.

The draft rules would:

• allow AEMO to share confidential information directly with existing specific third parties (relevant disclosees), consistent with current confidentiality obligations
• extend indemnity obligations to cover disclosure to relevant disclosees by both AEMO and RPs
• extend confidentiality obligations to cover these circumstances, and align them across National Electricity Rules (NER) and National Gas Rules (NGR)
• remove the provision in the NER allowing RPs to share the means to gain electronic access to National Metering Identifier (NMI) standing data to service providers
• require AEMO to develop procedures on how to manage access to relevant disclosees.

We are seeking feedback on our draft determination and draft rules by 19 March 2026. 

Rule change request

The request seeks amendments to the NER and NGR to explicitly authorise AEMO to disclose confidential information to authorised representatives of RPs, provided confidentiality safeguards are in place.

The proposed changes would clarify that disclosure by AEMO to an authorised representative equates to disclosure to the RP.

The proposed changes also include that RPs would remain responsible for determining which third parties may access confidential information and the scope of that access.

Background

In its market operator role, AEMO holds and generates large volumes of data and information essential for RPs to operate in the electricity and gas markets. Some of this data and information is confidential to the registered participant or is restricted to a particular group of registered participants.

RPs and their third parties access confidential information through AEMO’s identity and access management (IDAM) systems to support their operations.

As part of broader efforts to support the energy transition, AEMO is upgrading its platforms through which market participants access information to improve industry access, enhance operational efficiency and strengthen data security.

A key feature of these upgrades is the ability for authorised participant representatives to access confidential information directly within AEMO systems using their own verified credentials.

Under current rules, RPs may disclose confidential information with third parties; however, AEMO is not explicitly authorised to do so and therefore does not currently issue credentials to authorised representatives.